This study investigated insulin resistance in late middle-aged subjects people with an average age of 60. They were able to show an abnormal decrease in blood glucose utilization in certain areas of the brain related to memory, and that this seems crucial to the further development of dementia and Alzheimer’s. Their research focused on the hippocampus – an important region of the brain for acquiring new memories and sending information to long-term memory. The hippocampus has been shown to shrink when Alzheimer’s disease is present.
Co-authors Auriel Willette and Barbara Bendlin, of the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute, reviewed brain scans in 150 late middle-aged adults, who showed no sign of memory loss. The scans detected if people with higher levels of insulin resistance used less blood sugar in areas of the brain associated with the degeneration seen in Alzheimer’s disease.The subjects for this study were recruited from people already participating in an ongoing Alzheimer’s prevention study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which is examining a variety of factors- genetic, biological and lifestyle, that contribute to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Encouraging doctors to testing for insulin resistance in obese patients, and taking corrective action, through diet and exercise, is crucial says Dr. Willette. “We are terrible at adjusting our behavior based on what might happen in the future. That’s why people need to know that insulin resistance or related problems with metabolism can have an effect in the here and now on how they think, and it’s important to treat. For Alzheimer’s, it’s not just people with Type 2 diabetes. Even people with mild or moderate insulin resistance who don’t have Type 2 diabetes might have an increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease because they’re showing many of the same sorts of brain and memory relationships.”
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